William Czar Bradley II & Brooks Memorial Library:

Downtown Brattleboro

Brooks Memorial Library circa 1880s.

William Czar Bradley II, grandson of the famous jurist and poet from Westminster, was the first library director of Brook Memorial Library, serving from 1884 until about 1904. He was class poet at Harvard University, and he published two books in his time.

The Brooks Memorial Library still stands today, but in Bradley’s time it looked very different. The “beautiful and commodious” Victorian-style library Bradley knew stood until the 1960s, when it was demolished and the current structure was built in its place.